


loving you is easy

by harinezumi_kun



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-13
Updated: 2010-09-13
Packaged: 2017-11-05 17:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/409159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harinezumi_kun/pseuds/harinezumi_kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>aiba takes sho for a drive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	loving you is easy

**Author's Note:**

> just some fluff. i'm trying to improve my sakuraiba formula, but i'm not sure how it's going :/

They are in the middle of nowhere. Or at least, as close to the middle of nowhere as you can get while still being only a half hour from downtown Tokyo. They’re not even supposed to be driving, but Aiba refused to be talked out of borrowing his mother’s car, and Sho could not bring himself to let the other man go hareing off alone. So now, here they are, in one of those strange little forgotten pockets of farmland not too far from the city, and Aiba is striding off into the middle of a dark, empty field with Sho tripping along a few yards behind him.

“Aiba, I’m pretty sure this field, you know, belongs to someone,” Sho says imploringly. “We probably shouldn’t just go tramping around in it.”

But Aiba is ignoring him, stopped now in the knee-high grass, looking straight up into the sky. Sho follows his gaze curiously—there are some stars up there, despite the light pollution from the nearby city, but nothing really all that interesting, as far as Sho can tell.

He looks back down and fixes his gaze on Aiba. The look on Aiba’s face is something like a smile, because Aiba’s expression is always only a few moments from a smile, but still, Sho knows: something is wrong. Aiba has barely spoken since they started driving, and he kept drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, completely out of rhythm with the song on the radio.

Aiba still isn’t speaking, and Sho sighs to himself. He almost wishes Aiba had called someone else—Nino, or Jun, who always find the right thing to say in these situations, or even Satoshi, who is at least a lot more comfortable with long silences. Sho never knows what to do, or say, when Aiba gets like this, all he can do is _be_ there, and worry. But Aiba did call him, after all, so maybe that’s what Aiba wants.

“You okay?” Sho says finally, unable to keep quiet anymore.

Aiba shakes his head—honest, at least—and reaches up to push a hand through his hair, lifting it up and out of his face and holding it there for a moment.

“I just—I needed…space,” he says, finally bringing his gaze back down to earth. “To breathe.” 

There’s another heavy silence between them, punctuated by rustling grass, humming nighttime insects, and the rumble of cars on the highway in the distance. 

“Okay,” Sho says, uncertainly, but Aiba doesn’t offer any further explanation, and Sho doesn’t ask. After a moment, Sho wanders away—just a few steps, close enough that he’ll still be there if Aiba decides he needs someone to lean on—and starts plucking at the tall grass. Eventually, he finds a piece that suits his purpose, and catches it carefully between his thumbs.

But it breaks, so he searches for another. After a few more false starts, he gets it just right, and when he brings his hands up to his lips and blows, he produces a high, thin whistle.

Glancing over, he sees Aiba watching him. Sho keeps up his tuneless, reedy piping until Aiba finally, really, starts to smile.

Sho feels ridiculously, inordinately proud of himself. He walks back over to Aiba’s side, letting his little piece of grass flutter back down to the ground as he goes.

“That was cool,” Aiba says, his voice still strangely soft. “I used to make grass-whistles all the time when I was little.”

“Yeah.” Sho watches the other man, lets the unspoken question hang in the air for a moment before voicing it. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Aiba glances away, running a hand through his hair again, lips twisting uncomfortably. “Not really. But, well…Sho-chan, can I tell you something?”

Sho just nods. “Of course.”

Aiba searches his face for a moment, then takes a deep breath.

“There are,” Aiba begins, “a lot of people I care about. I mean, you know how much I love everyone, the members and…you know.” 

And Sho does know, too well. He knows how Aiba is so busy giving his love away to everyone around him that he never keeps enough for himself. There’s a “but” coming, though, that makes Sho furrow his brows anxiously.

“But,” Aiba continues. “I just wanted to say that…you’re special, you know? For me.”

There is another heavy pause, and Aiba is staring at him hard, but all Sho can do is blink stupidly. 

It’s not that he doesn’t get it. The way Aiba is looking at him—nervous, breathing a little shakily—makes it abundantly clear what he means. But it’s not that easy. 

It’s just not that easy, even though a part of him immediately wants to say “me too”, but with them being the people they are and living the lives they lead, it’s just not that easy. There are consequences to that, repercussions that might just make it better to stay silent.

When Sho doesn’t answer after a solid minute or so, Aiba allows himself a chagrined little smile.

“Well, yeah, anyway,” he mutters, turning away again. “Never mind.”

But then again, Sho thinks, studying Aiba’s profile in the near-darkness, maybe it is. Just that easy.

“Masaki,” he says, using the other man’s given name so Aiba will know it’s important. Aiba turns back with a startled blink, and Sho only waits a moment before leaning in to kiss him.

It is brief, chaste, and full of all the hesitance that Sho still feels. But.

“You’re special, too,” Sho says quietly, after pulling away. “For me.”

For a few heartbeats, Aiba is completely dumbstruck. And then he starts to grin, and Sho thinks that if anyone could really light up a room with their smile, it would be Aiba Masaki.

Aiba looks down, shy and pleased, then back up to nod once. “That’s…I’m glad,” he says. He reaches out for Sho’s hand, then, takes it, and just holds it, sliding their fingers together experimentally, as if he’s getting used to the idea all over again.

“Okay,” he says on a long exhale. “Let’s go.”

Sho nods, and gives Aiba’s hand a squeeze as they head back towards the car. They don’t say anything, but the silence between them is different now, full of smiles that speak volumes, and shoulders brushing with the promise of tomorrow and the day after.

It might get harder after this—in fact, it almost certainly will—but tonight, at least, is simple.

Deciding to be in love: that’s the easy part.

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from sarah mclachlan's [loving you is easy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcIqPINH2RM). doesn't have too much to do with the fic itself, but a good song nonetheless that i recommend listening to :D


End file.
